Esmeralda Basin (Esmerelda), Lake Ann — Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021

My friend and I decided to go in search of larches today, after diligently checking the weather reports for the Teanaway area.  It looked like light snow and then rising snow levels with little to no accumulation.  We also took into consideration the beginning of hunting season. I found out that rifle season begins Oct 16 with archery and muzzleloader season from Oct 12, so better for hikers.  Hunters were setting up base camps at the forest service campgrounds on the North Fork Teanaway river road, but we saw none on the trail.  The TH parking lot had only 3 cars, and a light dusting of snow.  The Esmeralda basin trail was in good shape with light snow. It snowed lightly most of the day, changing to rain after we were about half way back down.  The Lake Ann trail is well marked at the junction, but above that the snow deepened to about two to three inches. Gaia led us astray at a junction with what looked like an old trail, so we followed that and Gaia and then came back across the actual trail about 1/2 a mile up. On the way down we ignored Gaia and followed the actual trail (A bit to the east in the hanging valley).  At the top of the ridge it was snowing harder, and windy. We could see Lake Ann but faintly, and we did not descend to the lake. There were deer prints in the fresh snow, and flocks of small birds that I think were pine siskins.  Soon it will snow and cover the road and the trail, and it will be winter. There was a patch of broken trees across a large avalanche slope, so it does not look like a good place to go in deep snow.